Dirty Bomb, how bad?

manufacturing evidence.

"believers", I give them more credit than that.

politicians.

result in untold American deaths.

I saw some protestors on the TeeVee NooZ saying, "We don't want your racist war!" - Gaah! Even the protestors are politically correct these days!

Thanks, Rich

Pick any major coastal city. If you (and a million or so of your neighbours) suddenly have no cash, no job, no gas, and no food to buy locally anyway, what are you going to do?

Walk for the hills? Yes, that actually is my plan, at least as long as I'm young and fit and childless and generally fast enough to get beyond the band where severe ugliness will rapidly develop.. and have relatives within a few days forced march. Because population densities that depend on practically global feeders for food and fuel can't simply start roughing it in the area of land that most of them can walk to.

For the community as a whole though, the only real hope is to restore the importation of external supplies of food and fuel very soon after local stocks are depleted. The failure to do that in a timely fashion is exactly what people are complaining about in the hurricane areas: leave an entire city with little choice but to turn hunter-gatherer and the result is *not* pretty.

Not a lot, for a while. Eat and drink the earthquake stash, ice cream first of course. Barbeque the meat in the freezer as it thaws. Take walks, read books. That's what we did last earthquake.

Cash isn't immediately necessary, but we keep a stash of that, too.

Having been through several hurricanes, including the eye of Betsy, one tornado, and the San Francisco '89 earthquake, and having got into New Orleans as soon as I could after Katrina, I don't have as gloomy an outlook as you do. Most people are at their best in a big disaster, and our society and economy are amazingly resilient. A week after Katrina, generators and chain saws were on sale, and you could drive to Baton Rouge once or twice a week to gas up and stock up on groceries, credit cards fully functional. Albertson's supermarket was giving everybody a 10% discount; Gus's restaurant in Folsom was cooking grits and bacon and pancakes by propane stove. I saw a lot of people helping each other, and the only nastiness was on TV.

John

A nice story, and thought provoking, in its time, but probably massively off target in its details.

Proably sit in my RV and sell water. >:->

Cheers! Rich

Have you read "Lucifer's Hammer", by, I think, Niven and Pournelle, where this huge asteroid impacts Earth, and of course, they have _months_ of advance notice, so people prepare for armageddon. This one character triple-bags all of his books and drops them into his septic tank. ;-)

Cheers! Rich [But, God said, "'Road Warrior' might look like fun, but you might change your opinion when there's nothing left to eat but rotting corpses." - Cheers! - Rich the Philosophizer (Please visit

Well, just get your neighbor to give you a lift. And if you don't have a car, you don't need to shop around for gas.

John

I think the key to your perception is the following phrase....

" you could drive to Baton Rouge once or twice a week "

Now try it without a car.

Graham